| NETGEAR WNR854T RangeMax Next Wireless-N Router Gigabit Edition |
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Model: WNR854T-100NAS
Brand: Netgear
Manufacturer: Netgear
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 150
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11n (draft), IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
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| Features: |
Wireless-N router offers an easy way to set up a fast network with wired and wireless connections
Delivers up to 300 Mbps of wireless throughput
Built-in 4-port Gigabit switch for fast wired connections
Enhanced security includes a double firewall, and WPA and 128-bit WEP encryption
Device measures 8.9 x 1.5 x 6.8 inches (WxHxD) |
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| Description: |
| NetGear's RangeMax Next extends the possibilities of your wireless home network by providing wireless speeds of up to 300Mbps. This next generation wireless standard utilizes advanced MIMO (Multi-In, Multi-Out) technology, which delivers incredible speed and range. A RangeMax Next wireless network creates and maintains stable connections and enough bandwidth to surf the Internet, download MP3s, make Internet phone calls, share files, play network games, and stream high-definition videos simultaneously. Touchless WiFi Security makes creating the highest level of network security easy. Setup is simple thanks to NetGear's Smart Wizard and NetGear 24/7 basic technical support. Security - Double Firewall - Network Address Translation (NAT) to hide PCs and files from outside users / Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) firewall to deny outside requests for personal info /Denial of Service (DoS) attack prevention /Intrusion Detection and Prevent (IDS)/WiFi protected Access (WPA2-PSK, WPA-PSK) /WEP 64-bit, 128-bit encryption for 802.11b and 802.11g / Wireless Access Control to identify authorized devices / MAC address authentication /Exposed Host (DMZ) for secure gaming Privacy & Parental Control - Time-based usage controls, Web site logging, URL content filtering System Requirements - Broadband (cable, DSL) Internet service and modem with Ethernet connection / 2.4 GHz 802.11n or 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g wireless adapter. Alternatively, an Ethernet adapter and cable for each PC / Microsoft Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP, Mac OS, UNIX, or Linux / Compatible with Windows Vista / Internet Explorer 5.0 RangeMax NEXT Wireless-N Adapters (WN511T, WN311T, WN121T) recommended for best performance Unit Dimensions - 8.9 x 6.8 x 1.5 inches (225.5 x 172 x 39 mm) / Weight - 1.2 lbs (.56 kg) NetGear 1- year warranty |
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| User Reviews (150 total): |
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 of Total 8 Pages
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Another One Bites The Dust, August 5, 2008
By user (Silicon Valley, CA)
Three Netgear RangeMax routers and all three died. The WNR854T lasted the longest, 6 months. Avoid these dogs.
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Doorstop, like all the others, July 25, 2008
By user (Seattle, WA)
Yep, mine died a few months ago with the same issues as everyone else. Instead of wasting my time on the phone with Netgear I'm just chalking up to lesson-learned.
I'll probably buy whatever wifi is available at Costco because of their fabulous return policy if anything happens.
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WNR854T: Don't waste your money. Buy Linksys., July 25, 2008
By user (Redmond, WA USA)
A year and a half ago, I bought a WNR854T, and I was quite happy with configuration and performance of the router.
A year and two weeks ago, the router died -- power light green, nothing else lit up, as usual -- and since I needed a router, I thought "stuff happens" and bought another one while the first unit was going through an in-warranty replacement
So far, so good.
That replacement router, bought on July 17th, 2007, died today -- exactly one week after its warranty expired. I called Netgear for an RMA and was told that they could do nothing, the unit was out of warranty. Yes, yes, I replied, I am not asking for freebies -- I am more than willing to pay any reasonable fee for a repair. No, sir, we can do nothing, not even repair it. At that point, I thought the guy manning the phone was kidding me.
To make a long story short: Netgear knows the router is a piece of junk. They refuse to do post-warranty service because they would drown in dead routers. So they tell their suckers -- I among them -- to just throw the defective, out-of-warranty, units away.
And that is precisely what I am doing. Linksys, here I come!
Felix.
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Mine Just Died..., July 10, 2008
By user (Clearwater, FL United States)
I bought my first one a while ago and it died within the warrany period. I worked with Netgear support and they sent me a new one. Today I woke up and the second one has died. The green power light comes on but nothing else.
I will never buy another Netgear router.
Gotta go. Today is trash day and I want to make sure my $150 WNR854T gets into the trash today...
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The Reason this Router Fails, July 3, 2008
By user
I loved this router up until the day it failed for no apparent reason and Netgear's response was "go buy a new one" since I was a whole week out of warranty. It was only then that I found out (all over the net) that possibly hundreds to thousands of other owners had an identical experience with this router -- some having two or more routers fail.
When I disconnected my router, I heard something rattling around in it so I decided to remove the side panels to see what was inside. When I opened it up, I saw four chips, two big and two small, that had "heat sinks" on them. On mine, the adhesive on one of the smaller chips had failed and the heat sink fell off. When I touched the heat sink on the other smaller chip, I found it to be very loose and about to fall off as well. The heat sinks were tight on the larger chips. My educated guess -- and it is really only a guess since I have no way to verify it -- is the adhesive gave way and the heat sink fell off causing the chip to overheat and eventually fail. So my $120 router failed because they used poor adhesive that probably cost a thousandth of a cent or less!!! Since the chip had about 20 micro-contacts on each of four sides (a quarter of an inch square), there was no way I could replace the chip.
By the way, I did take Netgear's advice and I bought a new router -- a D-Link wireless N. The Netgear adapters that I had on my three computers work just fine with the D-Link router.
I would not recommend that you buy the Netgear router -- go with another brand.
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Completely worthless device..., July 2, 2008
By user (Omaha, NE USA)
There is nothing good I could possibly say about this. It worked for about six months. Same problem as all the rest. One day it just died. (For the record, I bought this in 2006.)
Before it broke, it would hardly ever work.
Any change to any setting in the thing would require the router to reboot to apply. This process made setting up the device extremely time consuming. Every little click in the web management interface would reboot the thing!
When it finally was up and running, connection problems were immediate. Hardly any of my devices could maintain a connection longer than 30 minutes. Sometimes connections would outright die in the middle of a transfer. I have about eight different wifi devices and this dang thing wouldn't work with any of them reliably.
Netgear has a strange idea of what "functional" means when it comes to their wireless routers of this generation and prior. Perhaps they've cleaned up their act, but I don't care. I felt completely punked by this product.
(For what it's worth, I now use a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 with the open-source DD-WRT firmware. It's not "wireless N" but the router has not needed a reboot in over nine months and my stuff ALWAYS connects and STAYS connected...)
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DO NOT BUY THE NETGEAR WNR854T, June 16, 2008
By user (Dallas, TX United States)
DO NOT BUY THIS ROUTER.
DO NOT BUY THIS ROUTER.
DO NOT BUY THIS ROUTER.
OH, AND ONE MORE THING...
DO NOT BUY THIS ROUTER!
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Rocky Start, but Getting Better, June 9, 2008
By user
I have used this router for a little more than 30 days. Setup was very time-consuming, but may be due to a firmware problem. The devices I wanted to connect were: A hard-wired Vista laptop, a hard-wired XP desktop, a WiFi XP laptop, a hard-wired all-in-one (printer/scanner/copier), a WiFi all-in-one and a hard-wired XBox 360. The first problem was documentation. I had to do some research to figure out that I could use WEP (for my older devices) and WPA for my newer ones at the same time.
Then the setup was a struggle, even though the setup helper seems to be well thought out. The router could not detect the type of network I had and it was difficult to make it accept what I said it was. I also ran into problems making one of the printers stay connected. On top of that, I had to cycle power on the router every day to make it reconnect outside of the local network.
I went to Netgear's site, which isn't too terribly hard to use, but still only offered a firmware upgrade to users outside the US. Customer support was my final option. After supplying info on their chat support for about 1/2 hour, I was instructed to load the firmware upgrade even though it specifically said non-US routers.
This really changed things. The set-up helper now automatically recognized my provider and after re-installing my now-confused printers, I have a stable, fast connection. Most important, I have only had to cycle power once in 10 days.
The WiFi performance is exceptional. My router is in a poor location in the house, which was a huge problem for my previous WiFi router. Problematic reception is no longer an issue.
I don't know if every customer has had to go through the trouble I did, but the resulting performance was worth the effort in my case.
Note for those who have their equipment in the bedroom: The status lights are incredibly bright and very active. That's normally a great feature because you don't have to guess if they are lit or not, but it might keep you up at night.
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Adding my voice to the litany, June 4, 2008
By user (Midwest USA)
This product is seriously flawed. As has been said, no, I'm not a newbie, no I'm not particularly bitter or angry and I have no vendetta. That said - I was quite happy to get this product, as my prior G network had always been plagued by instability and interference. The device set up easily and provided excellent coverage. My elation was short lived when I discovered that it would stop responding every fifteen or twenty minutes, dropping connection to my laptop, my wife's laptop, my daughter's mac mini, my Smartphone - you name it. You can access the admin web page over the wire, but not wirelessly (because nothing is actually connected). Netgear told me to update the firmware, but there is no firmware update (I'm on the latest version). In short, great concept, lousy execution. Don't buy this thing.
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This router is faulty DON'T BUY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, June 2, 2008
By user (Irvine, CA, USA)
I have (had) a RangeMAX NEXT Wireless Router Wnr854T. I purchased it December 2006. One year later, it died (I joind the "green circle of death" group). The problem: the router died suddenly and the only light on was the power LED (green). ALL the ports were dead, wireless dead, LAN dead,... death all around.
I got an RMA replacement for free (it was still in warranty). I received the EXACT same unit and it worked for a while. Yesterday (June 1, 2008) the "replacement" died again (same symptoms), but this time the warranty has expired. The solution offered by Netgear was "buy a new router". My expensive Wnr854T is now a very nice and useless brick with a green LED.
I AM NOT GOING TO BUY ANY NETGEAR ROUTER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!
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Highly disappointed., May 14, 2008
By user (Bayarea, California)
Having had a pretty good experience with my prior NETGEAR router, I upgraded to this one when the former one died after 2.5 years of use. However, after 7 months, it has unfortunately caught the same disease as others where none of the lights aside from the "On/Power" light are on. As others have gone into pretty good detail before, I'll spare those notes here as my situation is completely the same as theirs.
There are other better routers out there and for less. Those are your best bet over this one as NETGEAR apparently didn't bother to finish this rough draft of an idea.
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Worked Well and Then it Failed, May 14, 2008
By user (Palm Harbor, FL)
I should have read the reviews before I purchased this product. It worked fairly well for maybe 6 weeks, although I did have to reset the product a few times by cycling the power. Then one day I came in and all the lights were blinking as usual other than the wireless light. I couldn't get any type of connection to the internet and even called in a computer repair guy to fix it. It appears that something burnt up internally in the router, even though I had it on a good UPS.
Netgear usually has a great product, but this one failed completely. I've had other Neatgear routers that have lasted years, so I'm not sure what's wrong with this product, but I would definitely recommend not buying it. Try out one of their other products, but be sure to read the reviews just in case that's a faulty one, too. Don't make the mistake I did.
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Four (4) units dead so far, May 9, 2008
By user
I bought 8 of them for a large multi-site project and over the last 8 months, four units have died in the same way.
The reseller won't take them back past 90 days and Netgear support is useless.
I smell class-action.
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SOMEONE PLEASE START A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT!, April 27, 2008
By user
Second router (replacement) died today. Netgear's response: "You will have to buy a new one, your warranty is expired". Yes I will buy a new one, a LINKSYS.
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Great when it worked, died after 6 month as did the replacement, April 19, 2008
By user
Netgear refused to replace the replacement. They only will send you (multiple) replacements for 1 year, costing about $30 for shipping a pop. Don't buy this!
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Router bit the dust, April 5, 2008
By user (OHIO)
I used my computer last night and went out for the evening. I came home and my router had bit the dust. I have had this router for 10 months. Add me to the list of unhappy campers. I will not bother trying to get Netgear to replace this product. I am glad I read the reviews before going to the store to get another one of these. I will research and find another brand with better customer satisfaction.
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As if you needed more confimration on the POS..., April 2, 2008
By user (NC)
This hunk-o-junk failed literally 4 days after the warranty expired, and netgear refused to replace it. The story goes much like every other one told here, and the thousands of others reported on netgear's forums and other hardware related message boards: Go to sleep with everything working just fine. Wake up with only the power light on. Router dead. I thought that since it was LITERALLY 4 days beyond the warranty expiration date that netgear would make an exception and replace the router. Nope. After checking around some on the commonality of my situation, it becomes clear that this router just sucks. I'm guessing that netgear probably would have replaced it if this router didn't have suck a gawd awful track record. But after discovering how sucky and unreliable this router is, its probably best that i didn't get a replacement since i'm sure the second one would have been just as pathetic. like many of the other reviewers, replacing a POS router with another refurbished POS router is only going to delay the inevitable. last netgear POS I ever buy. From what I can find online, the best wireless N gigabit router is the D-Link DIR-655. Hopefully you read these reviews before throwing your money away. sheesh.
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802.11n Has NOT Matured, March 26, 2008
By user (San Jose, CA United States)
Unit does not support 5GHz spectrum and achieves 300Mbps connections using channel bonding in 2.4GHz, which interferes with practically all home cordless phones, baby monitors, and neighbor's phones that run in the 2.4GHz channel. It's ability to maintain a connection with 802.11n units just 20 feet away is quite poor - loses connection constantly because of issues with the 2.4GHz band. The firmware is extremely unstable, requires constant rebooting and has poor throughput through gigabit FTP. I was only able to achieve 10MB/sec but when I switched to the 5GHz capable Apple Airport Extreme Gigabit Edition, was able to achieve 20 to 25MB/sec throughput using the default settings.
Wait until Q4 of this year for 802.11n to be finalized and hardware comes out that supports simultaneous operation in 2.4GHz and 5GHz, which will make it easier to be fully backwards compatible and easily to transition. Currently, NO hardware supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz simultaneous operation. The closest is the Airport Extreme Gigabit Edition which can output in either 2.4 or 5 but not both - some updates to come with that one. But in case you want the AEBS now, please note that it does not work well with network servers because of a slightly different application of port forwarding compared to other routers.
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Died, and the replacement Died, March 11, 2008
By user
I purchased this router one year ago. Since then it has just died. I sent it back to Netgear and they sent me a new one. That took me offline for one week. Plus I had too pay for shipping the replacement router. That one died in about six months. That is two routers in less than twelve months. Good range and data rate when it works. Super fast is the only reason it got the second star. If reliability is important to you, skip it.
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Worst router I have ever owned!, March 8, 2008
By user
I purchased this router from a major electronics store on the recommendation of the salesman. Although the box was shrink wrapped in plastic upon opening it I realized that it had been returned by someone else; that should have been my first warning.
Initially the router worked fine with the exception on never being able to connect my print server to it wirelessly. After a few weeks all of a sudden I was getting dropped connections several times a day which I blamed on my ISP. If I unplugged the router and recycled it the connection would come back again before dropping for no reason. I did a search for "Netgear dropped connection" and was flooded with people with the exact problem I was encountering and nobody had any idea how to correct it, including Netgear.
I decided to cut my losses and just buy a competitors product which I got going in minutes and event the print server popped right up. If I could give this product zero stars I would have.
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